How a Lie Began a Love to Last a Lifetime
by AllTheNamesITryAreTaken
Summary: My first story to go on this site. Just a little something that popped into my head. T for safety. Not neccessarily canon pairings, but I'm not spoiling the ending for you!
1. Chapter 1

Lily Evans was watching James Potter across the Great Hall with longing in her eyes. Only when he turned to look did she paste on an expression of extreme boredom and turn her gaze to the ceiling.

"You know he fancies you, Lily," Marlene muttered into Lily's ear as she took the seat beside her. "Why not just go for it?" Her voice was low and suggestive as she plucked up a strawberry, taking an overly sensual bite of it with her eyes on James, and saying as she swallowed it, "Mmm..."

"Stop that, Marley!" Lily laughed.

"Yeah, people with think you're an even bigger slut than they already do!" said a short, chubby fourth year sitting a few feet away. The chairs between them were empty, and he maintained eye contact with her. He was clearly only provoking Marlene because his friends found it extremely funny.

"I really don't see how that's possible," Marlene murmured, still using her sexy voice. It was true, of course. Everyone in the school knew that Marlene was the school slut.

"S-so are the rumours true, then?" The boy's voice had cracked. Lily would have defended her friend, but she knew better. Marlene was two years older than these boys, and she could take care of herself.

Marlene leaned toward him, and he instinctively followed suit. Their faces were and inch apart when Lily read Marlene's lips as she breathed, "You'll have to find out for yourself," into the boy's face. He looked as if he'd just seen a Veela. Not that Marley was far from one. Not at all.

"So anyway," Marlene said as she sat up to face Lily. "Why not go out with Potter? He's fancied you for years now." She tossed her hair to the side and ignored the flustered boy that was still leaning across the seats, frozen.

"I would!" Lily exclaimed, and then she leaned in a lowered her voice. "It's just that he hasn't asked me and-"

"You don't want to initiate," Marlene agreed, nodding wisely. "But doesn't he ask you out every other day?" Lily blushed.

"Not for almost a year now. It's like we're...friends."

"And Lovely Lily wants more." _Lovely Lily_ was a nickname that, much to her chagrin, James had created for Lily in their third year. Back when he wasn't afraid to proclaim his undying love for her in the corridors and follow her around begging her for a single date.

And Lily really hadn't liked James until this year. He seemed to have grown up a bit over the summer before their second to last year at school. His body certainly had, anyway. Okay, honestly, he was irresistable. She was finally seeing what every other girl at school had always seen: The James Potter Charm.

"Oh my..." Marlene muttered, and Lily followed her friend's eyes to James once more. But the picture was different. He was sitting beside none other than Helen Robbins.

"Ugh," Lily muttered, disgusted and a bit jealous. She looked at him just as he snuck a look at her. To make sure that she was watching. He kissed Helen with such passion that Sirius Black had to get up and leave the table Hall, repulsion etched on every line of his face. Lily could have sworn Sirius had flinched when he'd noticed her pained expression.

"I know how to get him back. And to get him good and jealous," Marlene's voice was at it's very sexiest when she was at her most devious. Lily pouted a bit.

"I really don't think snogging someone in front of him will make him jealous." The girls were looking at each other, so neither noticed James trying to make sure that they were watching him. Or at least talking about him. Helen seemed totally absorbed.

Helen Robbins was probably the only person with nearly as scandalous a reputation as Marley's. And now she had herself completely wrapped around the boy who was either the first or second most eligible guy in the school. That was completely undetermined, but there were often heated debates regarding the popularity, hilarity, talent and good looks of Sirius and James. They were constantly playing leap-frog on the totem pole of popularity, but the boys didn't care. They wanted to have fun with each other. They were, after all, closer than brothers.

"Come on, Lovely," Marley urged.

"What do I do? Just say hello like always?" Lily was panicking. Marlene flashed another wicked smile.

"_You_, darling, will just walk beside me and giggle and smile and blush." She looked positively evil.

"But how is that going to-"

"And I'll say something that will really bother him." Lily was almost worried what insult Marlene would toss at James, but then she saw Helen running her fingers through that wild, black hair and she let go of her inhibitions.

Lily and Marlene got to their feet and made their way, arm in arm, towards James and Helen. Lily did her best to put on a convincingly girlish cover, giggling to Marlene, their heads close together. Just as they were a foot behind the happy couple, Marlene spoke up.

"Lily! You naughty girl!" The voice was good playacting, Lily thought. It sounded as if she'd accidentally said it too loud. Lily got the idea of the plan and blushed genuinely at the thought of whatever James might suspect she'd done. James pried his face away from Helen and looked after the giggling pair of girls. Helen looked offended, but James didn't care. He was only concerned with what Marlene had said. Certainly Lovely, good girl Lily wouldn't do anything that _Marlene_ thought was naughty...

"Merlin, Lily! Even _I _wouldn't let Sirius Black do that to me!" Marlene said, just loud enough for James to hear. Luckily, Lily was far enough that James didn't hear the giggling cease.


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N thank you for all of the reviews! And all of the enthusiasm! I'm more excited than anyone to see where this is going to go, and I hope that you love it as much as I do!**

_"Merlin, Lily! Even I wouldn't let Sirius Black do that to me!" Marlene said, just loud enough for James to hear. Luckily, Lily was far enough that James didn't hear the giggling cease._

"Marlene! You know they're best friends! Why would you do that?" Marlene just winked like she'd done Lily a great service and walked right back up to her dormitory.

James Potter sat at the table and gaped at the doors into the hall. Lily and _Sirius_? But Sirius knew how much he liked Lily! She was off limits! This was a complete betrayal by his best friend. This was the time for retaliation. No pranks, no stupid games. He and Sirius were finally going to discover who was truly a better fighter.

"What's wrong, Jamsey?" Helen simpered into his ear, pouting as though his pain, or more likely the fact that they weren't kissing, was hurting her.

"Get off of me," James muttered, too angry to apologize as he knocked her to the floor. "And get some dignity." As he stomped away from the table, Remus was on his tail.

"James, they might not have been telling the truth. Sirius would never have-"

"I KNOW!" James shouted. At the look on his smaller, weaker friend's face he took a deep breath and calmed himself a bit. People were staring now-more than they usually stared at James, anyway-so they took a short cut through a few less popular secret passages until they were in an empty corridor.

"So if you know that Sirius wouldn't have done it then why are you so-"

"Because he must have," James said flatly. "Why would Lily lie?" Remus stopped to think about this, but James gave him no time to do so. "You see? They must have..." his voice drifted off and his rage flared as he thought of what they might have done.

"What did they do?" Remus asked nervously. His curiousity was too much. "Or, I mean, what did Marlene _say_ they did. Did you hear?" James shook his head in disgust.

"Said they did something even Marlene wouldn't do."

Remus's eyes widened. He knew from Sirius's stories that Marlene had very few limits. And that had been in their fourth year.

"She's a gossip," Remus decided. "Lily wouldn't do anything like that."

"No one would gossip about the person if they were walking with them. And Lily was laughing, and her face was all red." James finally let the pain overcome the anger and his face fell. He looked as if he'd cry. "I thought he was my brother."

"James I really doubt-"

"I'll kill him," James growled as the anger erupted on his face once more.

"James, you should at least ask him first. He wouldn't lie to you-"

"How should we know he hasn't lied? If he betrayed me like this-" They were climbing through the portrait hole as they spoke. To both their horror, Lily was there sitting beside Sirius. They were laughing together beside the fire.

"Black!" James shouted. Sirius didn't flinch, but the rest of the common room froze. James and Sirius didn't fight. "Get up, Black!" James demanded as he approached the traitor's chair. Sirius turned away from Lily, startled. James was too distracted to register that Peter was sitting on the floor next to Lily.

"Prongs," Sirius said heatedly, "you know I hate it when you call me-" he read his friend's anger, and Remus's warning glances. "James, what's wrong?" he asked in a concerned voice as he stood to put a hand on James's shoulder.

James shrugged Sirius's hand off, sickened. Lily looked worried. _Probably for Sirius_, James thought furiously.

"You broke one of the sole Marauder codes!" James spat at Sirius. Sirius's eyes went directly to Remus and panic broke across his face.

"Did someone find out?" he asked, his eyes wide. "Because I swear, I'd never tell any-"

"Not that one!" James shouted. Sirius looked back it his best friend in confusion. He seemed to think about it for a moment, going down the list of rules in his head before responding.

"I honestly can't remember ever breaking one of those rules." James was visibly shaking.

"I think," Remus said pointedly, standing between his two much taller and stronger friends, "that James is referring to the rule about stealing girlfriends."

Sirius looked innocently shock. His guiltless expression was too much for James and he drew his wand and pointed it past Remus squarely at Sirius. There was a collective gasp around the Common Room. Potter and Black never fought. They spent hours in detention, caused insane amounts of trouble and were brilliant at everything, but they never fought.

"Prongs!" Sirius gasped, not pulling out his wand as he would have against anyone else threatening him, but instead raising his hands in surrender. "Prongs, we swore we'd never draw a wand on a brother!"

"Well maybe you aren't my brother anymore, Black!" James yelled. Remus was blasted back and he stumbled into Lily, who had risen from her seat to stand off to the side of the argument.

Sirius still made no move. He didn't even spare a glance for Remus, who was being righted by Lily. Sirius looked as though he'd just been punched in the face by his best friend. Lily spoke next with anger in her voice.

"Is this about what Marlene said, Potter?"

"What did Marlene say that could make you-?" Sirius watched as James spared Lily a glance, and watched James make a face that only the closest of friends would recognize. It was that split second between waves of fury when the walls came down. He was hurt. Badly. "James, I swear to you I haven't gone near her," Sirius muttered consolingly as he reached out a hand to his friend.

"See, I told you that-"

"Stay out of this, Moony!" James hissed at Remus. Lily was infuriated.

"You leave him alone, James Potter! For your information, what Marlene said wasn't true, but even if it _were_," she growled, "why would you care?"

"It's part of our code!" James said, forgetting that for the past year he'd been pretending that he didn't like Lily. Playing hard to get, because the chase wasn't working. "We leave each other's girls alone!"

Lily's expression went from pure shock, to mollification, to anger, to disbelief and then back to anger in just a few seconds.

"Well that rule seems irrelevant in this case, Potter, as _I'm not your girlfriend_!" Lily shouted.

James snorted.

"Not stealing someone's girlfriend is common courtesy, Evans. We were supposed to be _brothers_!"

"We are brothers, James! And I haven't gone near her!" Sirius interjected. "Tell him, Evans!"

"I still don't see how any rule about girlfriends should apply to _me_," Lily said, ignoring Sirius's prompt to explain their situation further.

"You may not be James's _girlfriend_, Evans," Sirius explained tiredly, "but you've been his girl since our first year. None of the Marauders would go near you, on principle." The look on her face made him grin. "Not that any of us would go near you anyhow."

"Shut up, Padfoot," James muttered, but Sirius knew it was now safe. James had used his nickname.


	3. Chapter 3

Lily had blushed deeply and muttered something about 'homework' and 'idiotic boys' as she hurried up to her dormitory. James had grabbed his invisibility cloak and stalked out of the Common Room, not apologizing to Sirius or Remus before he went.

"He's completly mental!" Sirius muttered as he collapsed back into his chair. Peter was at his feet and was nodding fervently.

"You know how James is about Lily," Remus reprimanded Sirius as he took a seat. "He probably would have killed you if it was true."

Peter gaped as if this was news to him.

"Well..." Sirius muttered in a guilty tone.

"Sirius, you didn't!" Remus gasped. Peter's eyes were wide in amazement at Sirius's bravery. "When?"

"I..." Sirius shrugged. "I'm not sure. A few times over the last few years. Whenever she was really mad about James and that greasy git Snivellus."

"Sirius," Remus sighed, letting his head fall into his hands. "What's wrong with you?"

"She didn't want him, Moony!" Sirius said defensively. "He just follows her around and annoys her! It isn't my fault she turned to someone who could-"

"Please, don't say it," Remus muttered into his hands.

"When was the last time?" Peter said, still in awe of Sirius. Remus looked at the boy on the floor with utter disgust.

"I guess the last time was right before summer started last year." Sirius, to Remus's disgust, didn't sound ashamed. He sounded almost...proud.

"And what exactly did you do?" Remus asked. He looked old, stressed. Like he was fighting some great inner battle while he listened to his friend speak.

"We just...fool around. Nothing too serious. She usually laughs, and then when she starts to cry we stop." His face fell a bit. He looked embarassed, but not nearly embarassed enough.

Remus just sighed and left the room, feeling absolutely awful. Angry at what Sirius had done. Disbelieving that Lily had done those same things. Painfully sorry for James. Because as much as it pained him to do this to Sirius, to Lily, and most of all to James, Remus knew that he had to let the truth be known.


	4. Chapter 4

On the way down to lunch that day, Peter was bursting with something that he wanted to say, but he kept his mouth shut. Remus was silently furious with his Sirius, who seemed to be in a refelctive mood. Sad, even.

"What's going on?" Sirius asked Lily as they met a large group in the entrance hall. The doors to the Great Hall seemed to be shut, so students were congregating outside, waiting.

"Something went wrong in the kitchens so lunch won't be up for another half hour or so." Lily looked at her feet as she spoke, unable to meet Sirius Black's eyes. He was, after all, the keeper of her greatest and most shameful secret. _Or the sharer,_ she thought bitterly. She was utterly humiliated that she had sunk so low as to...but no. She cared about James Potter now.

Lily and the Marauders, besides James, stood near the center of the group of students. Then out of nowhere, Peter seemed to lose control of his impulses.

"I can't believe you two hooked up last year!" he said loudly, causing Lily's jaw to drop and Sirius to kick him squarely where no wizard wants to be kicked.

"That wasn't true, Wormtail, just one of Marlene's little jokes," James said cheerfully as he pushed his way through the crowd to help Peter off the floor.

"Well, James..." Remus said, looking at the floor. Lily was still frozen in shock. Sirius's jaw cleanched as he realized what was going on.

"Please don't do this, Moony," he muttered. When Remus looked as though he would proceed, Lily found her voice.

"You tell my secret, Remus," she warned, sounding horrified by the very words she spoke, "and I...I'll tell yours!"

But there was no need for Remus to tell. She had confirmed what Peter had said with her threat.

"Lily," James said with deep, inconsolable pain in his eyes. She wanted to say she was sorry, but James had already turned his face to Sirius. "Padfoot. I trusted you."

And then Sirius had his wand out, pointed directly at James. James's draw was nearly as quick. Students were swarming, quickly forming a circle around the two boys. They knew that James and Sirius didn't fight, of course. They were expecting perhaps a brilliant hoax or prank, and they all wanted a view of what the main Marauders were doing.

"James, don't!" Lily begged with tears streaming down her face, but he didn't care.

"You are no longer my brother, Sirius Black," James said flatly, fury on his face. "You are no longer welcome in my home. You are no longer welcome near me."

"Prongs," Sirius said hurt. "I only took out my wand to defend myself. But I've never-"

"DON'T!" James burst out. "Don't say you've never broken a code, or that you've never lied to me. You have done...things." James's face fell and his voice became lower, dangerous. "Things," he continued, "with Lily. And you haven't told me. When asked, you lied to me. You broke a code, you lied about it-which is also against our rules-and then you drew your wand on me!"

"Oh, James, don't be thick!" Sirius shouted,letting his anger overwhelm him. "Don't you see how _childish_ our 'code' is? Not stealing a girlfriend! I mean, seriously Prongs! Don't you see she doesn't care about you! Are you too blind to see that?" Both boys were shaking and it would only be moments before a fight would break out.

"I told you years ago that-"

"You can't call 'dibs' on a girl when you're eleven and then expect us to leave her alone! She's beautiful, James, and just because you have a crush on her, that shouldn't stop any of us from going near her!" Sirius spat the words, and they burned James like acid.

The pain washed over James's face again.

"But you didn't tell me about it, Padfoot." The nickname wasn't used affectionately this time. "I would have been okay with it, I think. If you'd been kind to her, if you really cared about her. It would have hurt me, Sirius, but I'd never be selfish when it came to my brother." He shook his head and sniffed. He was crying now.

"You can't honestly know what you would have done if I'd asked you," Sirius muttered.

"No," James agreed. "I can't rightly say that I would know. But did you hear what you just said. You thought you should have _asked _me. But she wasn't mine to give. All you needed to do was _tell_. How hard would that have been, Sirius?"

"Impossible. To see the look on your face. When I knew that neither me nor Lily wanted anything more than..." his voice trailed off and James sniffed again. "It would have been impossible." Sirius was crying too.

"Then _why_?" James moaned.

"Because I'm a selfish arse hole," Sirius said. There was a shadow of a smirk on his teary face, but James just clenched his jaw and flared his nostrils.

"Sirius, you know that I'm the one person who isn't distracted by your jokes," James said coldly. "Why did you have to lie?"

"I just told you, I didn't want to see-"

"You lied _to my face_, Sirius." James said tearfully. "You stood in front of me and told me you'd never touched her. You asked Lily to back up your lie." James looked sickened. "Any other broken code can be forgiven."

"Thank you," Sirius dropped his wand hand and began to advance on James, but James raised his wand to Sirius's eye level.

"No!" James spat. "Tempted by Lily. I understand you. I would've done the same, given the chance."

Lily was on sobbing into Remus's shoulder nearby, shouting 'don't fight' and 'I'm sorry' over and over.

"You got angry and pointed your wand at me," James continued. "I understand. Instincts take over, and you thought I was going to attack you."

"I didn't think you were going to-" Sirius tried.

"I was!" James yelled. "I'm still planning on it! But I want you to understand why I'm doing it before I remove your face from her head! It's because the most important rule of friendship, of the Marauders, of brotherhood."

"What-

"You lied to me, Sirius!" James sounded insane. "You betrayed me, and by the sounds of it, you did it more than once! But then when I asked for the truth, you denied it!" James had tears streaming down his face, but he was angrier than he'd ever felt before.

"We just made out a little bit, James! Okay! Nothing else! I just...I just..." Sirius was more tearful than ever before. "I screwed up! Don't make me lose my brother over it!"

The surrounding crowd was completely disbelieving. They'd always known that James and Sirius did everything together, but they'd never been able to fathom how strong their friendship was. How vital it was for the both of them. They would have never guessed that the prospect of their friendship ending could lead to a tear-filled public display. They had never recognized that the boys that they regarded not as 'Sirius' and 'James,' but rather as 'Sirius and James' had a bond greater than brotherhood. They loved one another like family, but they were so close that the word 'brother' could not describe the depth of their relationship. They were nothing less than soul mates. Not in the manner that most people regard the term, but rather soul brothers. And not having that other piece of themselves...Sirius and James separately would likely become nothings.

James took a deep, shuddering breath and raised his wand, ready to strike. Sirius's hand flinched up as if he wanted to protect himself, but then he lowered his wand. He left himself defenseless, knowing that whatever he got couldn't be as bad as losing James.

"Please don't!" Lily screamed. "James, it wasn't his fault! It was because I was depressed over everything and-"

"Lily!" James shouted, and she was immediately silenced. "I have seen you cry a hundred times. And I try to talk to you, to comfort you in any way possible, and you've pushed me away. Don't pretend that Sirius Black was your only option."

"James, I care about _you_!" she sobbed as she reached for him. James flinched and tugged his arm out of her grasp.

"You sicken me," he muttered, and she froze as he turned back to Sirius.

"James Potter you told me you loved me!" she yelled. James seemed to swallow convulsively. After a moment, he turned to face her again, his expression somewhere between that of someone ready to commit murder and someone ready to commi suicide.

"And doesn't that make it a thousand times worse?" he asked quietly, and for the first time the Marauders weren't the only ones who knew. Now Lily, along with the entire population of Hogwarts, knew that James's proclamations of love, his constant pleading for dates, and his pranks on every male friend of Lily Evans had meant something more than they'd thought. He wasn't just going after the one girl he couldn't have. He was going after the one girl he truly loved.

James turned to look at Sirius and held his wand high, prepared to attack. He moved his arm to let it point straight between Sirius's eyes. He wanted to look into those traitorous eyes when he did it.

But then there was a clatter as James's wand hit the floor.

He hadn't been disarmed. He had simply released his wand and let it fall to the stone floor.

"I don't know a curse bad enough," he said coldly.

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><p><strong>AN: Thank you for the reviews and favorites! I really appreciate it all. And I'd just like to let you know that if right now you are hugely pissed off at Sirius and Lily, you are not alone. I feel awful for James, but this is just how the story flowed. I hope you enjoy it anyway. The next chapter is nearly ready, so it should be up soon!**


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N: This chapter is dedicated to hushpuppy22 ,for putting in the time to write a long, lovely review. And because of that review, I feel I must now explain something: I knew this was going to happen. When I got to the second chapter (which was finished before I published) I felt that Lily and Sirius should be together in some way. Making it a James&Lily story with Romance&Friendship themes might have led it in the wrong direction, I suppose, but the title may or may not be about that pair *evil smirk* Enjoy!**

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><p><em>"I don't know a curse bad enough," he said coldly.<em>

"James," Sirius said, and his voice was that of a child. "James, please."

"All I can say, Sirius, is that you have _truly _lived up to your family name. I'm sure your mum and dad would be very proud of you, betraying your best friend." And at that he turned and stalked away.

"James," Lily said, grabbing his arm, and James could hear Sirius crying behind him. He imagined that the boy would look something like Lily, puffy-eyed and distressed. "Please don't go!" James gave her the most evil of smirks, but beneath it was a horribly disguised look of anguish.

"Let go of me, Evans. You and Black both look _thoroughly_ troubled. Shouldn't you be off in some broom cupboard _comforting_ each other?"

"Prongs," Sirius begged. "Don't break up the Marauders over this!"

"C'mon, Sirius," James replied nastily. "Our code-our brotherhood-is childish, isn't it?" He echoed Sirius's earlier words, words that Sirius regretted deeply. "Oh and, Evans, not that I care anymore, but be careful. The Black family doesn't mix well with muggle-borns like you."

James internally cursed himself. Even in this situation he couldn't stand to call her what he knew would hurt her most. Because he didn't think of it as an insult, just something that insecure children said to bother her.

"Please," Lily sobbed.

"It's okay though, really. Everytime I tried to protect you from people calling you rude names or attacking you in the corridors, you told me to leave you alone. So now I am. See how long you can survive out there, Evans. People may not be childish enough to call you 'mudblood' anymore, it's idiotic. But nothings going to stop them from calling you a dirty, lying slut." He spat the last words in her face.

"I am!" Lily cried. "I'm sorry! I'm a terrible person! Just don't hate me, don't hate him!" It took every ounce of strength that James had to turn away from her. To walk away and not hug her and tell her he forgave her and that he loved her, forever. He knew that it would always be true.

"Moony, give me the map," James demanded.

"Why?" Remus asked rather bravely.

"Because I said so."

When Remus looked determined to keep the map, James roughly snatched it from his smaller, weaker friend's hand.

"I'm sorry, Moony. Really, I am." James's voice was much softer, more controlled. "At least you told me the truth. And I'm sorry I won't be able to be here for you next time your mother is sick." And with that, James made his way up the stairs that led away from the Entrance Hall.

"Why do you need the map?" Remus yelled at his friend, who was now at the top of the stairs.

"I don't want to be bothered, Moony. You understand."

"Will you ever give it back?" Peter shouted quite insensitively. James seemed to think that insensitivity was no great issue when compared to what Lily and Sirius had done.

"You can have it, and the cloak, when they..." James rubbed his face in a conflicted manner before he finished his sentence. "You can have them when I've been found." And he whipped around a corner, off into the castle.

"What did he mean, 'when he's been found'?" Peter asked, clearly eager to regain the two most prized Marauder possesions.

"Time for lunch!" Dumbledore said happily as he threw open the Great Hall doors. Not a single student moved, they were in complete shock.

"He's left his wand," Sirius said in a voice that sounded dead as he stared down at the stick sitting on the ground. Hollow, yet horrified. "Moony, you dumb son of a bitch you let him take the map and HE LEFT HIS WAND!" Sirius screamed as he slammed Remus against the wall.

With a flick of Dumbledore's wand, Sirius Black was on the ground.

"What seems to be the problem?" the Headmaster asked in a threatening manner.

"Prongs," Sirius breathed, and he rolled his neck, put his hands to the floor and pushed off hard. Then he was sprinting away as fast as he could.

He felt his fur whipping around his face as he ran around the corner, his paws slapping hard against the ground as he ran faster than ever before. He ran faster than he had the night that Remus had escaped them during a full moon and almost went into the castle. He ran faster than when Dumbledore had emerged on the grounds in search of 'dangerous creatures out late at night.' He ran faster than could have been possible. He'd taken off so quickly that he hadn't heard the the gasp at his transformation, he'd been so far away.

But it was useless. He reached a corridor that contained, to Sirius's knowledge, four separate secret passageways. And James could have taken a regular corridor away as well. There was no hope without the map.

He turned and sprinted back down the stairs, where Remus and Lily were explaining to a few professors why they were worried about James, although they left out the goriest details. All of the students still stood there silent and immobile. The great black dog jumped the last few stairs and lifted his front paws, taking one step on his back paw before it turned into the quick, long stride of Sirius Black, man once again. There was smattering of applause until the more sensible students quieted the cheerers down.

"He's going to kill himself." Sirius spoke bluntly as he approached Dumbledore, sure of himself.

"Mr. Black, you can't know-" McGonagal began.

"I know him better than anyone does. And you didn't see his face. He's going to kill himself."

"Maybe he's just going to run off," Peter suggested. Sirius shoved him roughly to the ground.

"Are you that thick? James Potter wouldn't accidentally leave his wand! And what did you think when he said you could have his favorite things when he was found?" Sirius shouted down at the quivering boy. "Did you think this was some game of hide-and-go-seek, Wormtail? Did you think we'd win _prizes_ if we searched until we found him?" They all left Peter there, cowering on the floor. Even Dumbledore had no patience for the boy.

"I don't know a fast enough way to find him," the headmaster said frustratedly, and then with an air of authority he addressed the students around him. "Get in the Great Hall! Now!" There was a minute of chaos and then the only ones who remained in the Entrance Hall were Dumbledore, McGonagal, Flitwick, Sirius, Remus, and a sobbing Lily. Peter had left to eat, Sirius noticed furiously.


	6. AUTHOR'S NOTE!

**Author's Note**

_IMPORTANT! PLEASE READ!_

**I need to apologize a lot for this, but there may be a large break between now and when the next chapter comes out. I had the next four chapters done and waiting on my laptop when it decided to do this fun new trick where it wipes out all of my files. So no more...**

***Three page analysis of Ray Badbury's "Farenheit 451" (really ironic that technology killed a paper about that particular book)**

***Thesis on the effects of the Spanish Inquisition on the following century**

***itunes**

***How a Lie Began a Love to Last a Lifetime!**

**I have been working on rewriting, but between the stress of the screwy computer and trying to rewrite my papers, I have almost no time to spend on fun. And, the fact that this is kind of an important point of the story means that I want it perfect. I loved the way I had it written out, actually, and now I can't get it JUST RIGHT anymore. I'm sure anyone who has been through this can understand.**

**So I just wanted to apologize, explain myself, and tell you that in no way am I abandoning this story. And let you know that I'll upload the next chapter RIGHT AWAY this time, and keep them saved somehow online if they're typed and I'm not ready to update yet.**

**So sorry to the 4,000,000th power, and I hope you have a nice week!**

**Love to all.**


	7. Chapter 6

**A/N: I am a horrible, horrible excuse for an author. It's been far too long since I last updated, something I so pathetically acredit to schoolwork, technical difficulties and a bout of writers block. My apologies, and thank you for coming back to read more. I feel like this may be a bit OOC-as OOC as techinically unwritten characters can be, I suppose-but after it was done, I liked it. It ends oddly simply because I just wanted to get everything I had done online as quickly as I could. I hope you enjoy Chapter Six!**

**Disclaimer: I think I've forgotten these. None of you think I own any of this, right? No? Good, then we're on the same page here.**

**WARNING!WARNING!ALERT!ALERT!**** I may have neglected to tell you this before, but there is some naughty language. Most of which occurred in the past few chapters, so...sorry if you saw something that made you wash your eyes out with soap or something. I don't think its anything that bad, but Sirius Black isn't known for his discretion. Sorry, loves!**

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><p>"We'll have to use the map," Remus decided. Sirius looked at him in total disbelief, his hands balled into shaking fists.<p>

"He _took _the map, you bloody idiot!" he shouted, not caring that there were three professors standing next to him.

"What map?" Dumbledore asked quickly.

"The Marauders Map," Remus explained, immediately dismissing all codes about not revealing Marauder secrets, especially to professors. "It's a map of all plottable places in the school and on the grounds."

"But how will that help?" Lily said with a sniff. "Don't you all basically know the place by heart anyways?"

"It shows everyone in the school. Their name is like a tiny avatar of them. Wherever a person goes in the school,_ their name _goes there on the map." Remus' description of the Maruders' most prized creation was met with shock, even from Dumbledore.

"That's...that's extremely complicated Charms work," Flitwick stuttered.

"Not to mention mapping out the entire school," Dumbledore commented, looking impressed.

"Yes, yes, we're sneaky and brilliant, we know," Sirius said in an annoyed tone, as though he was finally sick of being praised. "But it still stands that James took the map. We can't use it to find him!"

"You could make another," Lily offered in a small voice, wiping tears away from her shining emerald eyes. Sirius turned to glare at her coldly.

"That map took us _three years_ to complete, Evans!" he spat. "We can't just make another!"

"Calm down, Black, she didn't know," McGonagal told the boy tersely.

"Do you think I give a damn-" he began, but Remus interrupted him.

"We can start a map. By memory. It'll be less detailed, and less reliable. But on the upside, we could make it so it only followed one person. Like the prototype, remember? The first one that acutally worked? He can't lose us in a crowd of names that way," the werewolf suggested.

"I suppose we could..." Sirius muttered. Then, taking out his wand, he Conjured a stack of parchment, a few large, feathered quills and a pot of ink.

"Where are you going to start?" Lily asked in a slightly pushy voice. Remus looked at Sirius, momentarily conflicted.

"Well, Prongs usually..." he said quietly. He didn't want to bring up the fact that their missing companion generally spearheaded their plans.

"Do a preliminary sketch, just of the main plot of the school and grounds. Maybe, even without the rooms divided or labelled, you'll still be able to see him," the girl suggested. She seemed to have finally stemmed the flow of tears. "Then, you can fill in the blanks."

"Alright," Sirius agreed reluctantly. "I'll do the top half. Moony, you do the bottom."

"Got it. Put in the main rooms. The Great Hall, the towers and such," he reminded his friend. Sirius nodded and they spread out the parchment on the floor in front of the Entrance Hall's staircase. There were a few minutes of complete silence besides the scratching of quills and mutterings under the Marauders' breaths while the Professors and Lily watched the pair, useless.

"Aren't you going to do something productive?" Sirius said rouhgly as he used his wand to vanish a passageway he'd mistakenly drawn in too near to the astronomy tower.

"Do you have any suggestions, Mister Black?" McGonagal asked briskly. He gave her a slightly cynical version of his generally cocky grin before answering.

"Surely you have some_ functional _method of locating lost students, professor."

"I...we...I..." she replied embarassedly, her nostrils flaring in indignation.

"We do, Mister Black," Dumbledore said in his low, peacemaker's voice. "But I'm inclined to say that if Mister Potter does not wish to be found, it is not within our power to locate him." Sirius simply nodded and continued his fumbled attempt at topography.

"Sloppy, sloppy, Padfoot," Remus criticized jokingly. Cruel as it seemed to the observers, the boy knew that his friend thrived whilst being teased or taunted.

"Ah, Moony, but I'm nearly finished," the elder teen responded, giving his map a quick once-over before glancing similarly at Remus'.

"Then start on the grounds," he challenged. Sirius smirked, using ink-stained hands to shove his dark hair behind his ears, and set to work on a separate sheet of parchment.

"You're an illegal Animagus,"McGonagal exclaimed suddenly, seeming to have just remembered the teen's momentary canine excursion. No one even looked at her.

"We all are," Sirius said tiredly. "Moony here needed playmates."

"You boys...you boys know of...of Mister Lupin's...ailment?" the stern woman asked.

"Of course we do. He managed to keep it secret for a total of-"

"Two and a half months, before these gits caught me," Remus commented, chewing on the feather of his quill as he examined his handiwork. "Took til third year for Lily to figure it out."

"Second, but I didn't want to mention it," Lily said, a bit proudly. Remus grunted in response, reminding her that the teasing mood was ingenuine and that he was still angry with her.

"Who else knows?" McGonagal asked, worry etched in every line of her face.

"Don't worry. Only the four smartest students, and Pettigrew," Sirius told the Transfiguration professor.

"The four smartest students are Miss Evans, Mister Lupin, Mister Dedrick and Miss Rivers," McGonagal listed imperiously, not wanting to give the boys the satisfaction.

"And yet you're sitting here waiting for us to fix this damn problem," Sirius muttered bitterly, cursing as he over turned the inkpot on the stone floor, although a quick wave of his wand vanished the stain as quick as it came.

"No disrespect, professor, but those are the students with the highest marks. But based on general intelligence, practical skills and such, James and Sirius are top students. It's proven by the fact that their marks are still nearly the highest, yet they refuse to study or do homework." Remus' argument elicited soft chuckles from Sirius and the Headmaster, and affirmative, reluctant silence from the others.

"Here, Moony, look over mine," Sirius demanded, switching his diagrams with Remus'. They both examined them critically.

"You've forgotten the astronomy room in the dungeons," Sirius said, making an addition to the werewolf's sketch.

"And you've missed the Missing Room," Remus retorted, dipping his quill into the inkpot and beginning to edit.

"Ah, I always do," Sirius sighed. "How'd you manage to forget the Slytherin Common Room?"

"No clue," Remus said, disbelieving. He leaned over to look at his own map. "Look at that, I did, didn't I. Odd." Shrugging, he continued checking Sirius' maps. "Padfoot, that secret room on the seventh floor, by that hideous tapestry. That's-"

"Unplottable," Sirius confirmed. "I tried to draw it into the original, too, remember?"

"Yes, right," Remus mumbled. "What son of a..." His eyes shot up at his professors and, noting their prescence, he quickly changed his comment. "What idiot made so many unplottable rooms in one castle?"

"I don't know, but if James doesn't suspect we're making maps, he probably won't worry about whether he's in an unplottable area, will he?" Lily postulated.

"You can never assume that James Potter doesn't suspect what you're doing, Lily," Remus explained. There was a shadow of a fond smirk on his face, but it quickly fell away.

"Ah, yes. We've made _that_ mistake a few too many times, eh, Moony?" Sirius joked stiffly. His friend simply grunted; he could only joke so far in the current predicament.

"Mister Potter is clever and thorough, I'm sure," the Headmaster commented. "It isn't safe to assume, in any case, that he doesn't suspect what we're doing. Why, he may be standing in this room right now, watching us."

"We'd see him if he were here, Albus," McGonagal said derisively. "We aren't _completely_ useless."

"Yes, Minerva, but I must say, these boys probably have their ways of staying..._inconspicuous_," he hypothesized, throwing a glance at Sirius.

"You could say that," Sirius mumbled evasively, not eager to betray another Marauder Code. It was clear that Dumbledore knew that James had an Invisibility Cloak, or at least that he could become invisible, and that was enough for Sirius.

"Yes, I think we're done," Remus decided, spreading the sheets of parchment out on the floor, showing floor-by-floor diagrams of the building they were in and the grounds around it.

"How will you make the map track him? Will you use...Locogram Populum?" Lily asked, eager to have the right answer, as always.

"We tried that once. It was totally ineffective," Remus told her, causing her face to fall further, if that were possible.

"Polypolis Graphis?" Flitwick asked. Sirius sighed and began to speak, as if to a petulant child who wouldn't believe that two plus two was, in fact, four.

"You're coming at this far too simply. It took us years to make this map, do you think it was some text book Charm? We spent months trolling books, putting together our own incantation," Sirius explained, annoyed at their assumptions of their own omniscience.

"You...you created your own incantation?" Flitwick stuttered, his high voice jumping two octaves.

"A few," Sirius amended. "But this was the best."

"Sad, really, we haven't topped our work since we were thirteen," Remus commented, and Sirius nodded at the thought, his shaggy hair bobbing weirdly.

"Thirteen!" McGonagal exclaimed.

"What was it, again, Remus?" Sirius asked. Remus grabbed a spare peice of parchment and began writing down what he thought the spell may have been. His friend would sometimes shake his head, pointing at a place a speaking quietly to the werewolf, who would then edit his work to fit his friend's memory.

"Would you boys like some help?" Flitwick asked after a minute.

"No," the boys said in unison. Neither even bothered to add a 'sir' to their comment, busy as they were.

"Alright, I think that's it," Remus mumbled, chewing the feather of his quill thoughtfully.

"No, no," Sirius objected. "In the second line, it's _moto_ not _morto_. Moto is move, morto would be-"

"Death," Lily interrupted eagerly.

"Five points to Gryffindor, for the pointless interruption," Sirius said dryly. "Yes, change that back to moto."

"Yes. And...wait. Do you remember if _this_ is right?" the werewolf asked, pointing out a word in the fourth line. Sirius wrinkled his brow in concentration and then turned to the group behind them.

"A question for the brain trust," he began sarcastically, and then stopped to chuckle.

"What?" Lily asked, offended. "We need to hurry, remember!"

"I know, Evans. It's just, I was being sarcastic, but you four could probably _actually_ be some kind of think tank," he laughed.

"Yes, yes, very funny, Mister Black. What do you need help with?" McGonagal asked sharply.

"_Tempoverit_," he read from the paper. "That would mean-"

"True to time," Lily interrupted. Flitwick gave her a special smile, the kind he gave to his teacher's pets, and the other two professors nodded in agreement. Sirius placed the paper on the ground in front of his friend, reading it over one last time.

"Alright. Then it's perfect."

"Just as I remember it," Remus confirmed.

"Should we ask Peter?" Lily asked. "Maybe he'd remember it differently. You don't want to get it wrong."

"Peter doesn't remember what he had for breakfast," Sirius said, and it was clear he was holding back truer, stronger feelings. "And he'll be too absorbed in his lunch to care much, anyhow."

"That's not fair, Sirius," she argued. "He's probably just nervous and doesn't know how to react to this situa-"

"Peter's useless. He follows us around and gets credit for being a Marauder, but he's useless," Remus said flatly in the voice of someone trying to subdue a crowd. "Not pleasant, but it's the truth. So here we go, then. Who should do the Charm?"

"You did the first map, and it's always worked brilliantly," Sirius complimented. "Just remember to change that _omni_ in the second part into..." his voice trailed off as he thought.

"We did _uni_ last time, on the prototype, right?" Remus asked. "Uni, James Charlus Potter." Sirius' eyes danced over the words before he looked up.

"That sounds about right."

"Maybe we should look it over, boys," Professor Flitwick said nervously, earning two matching glares from the boys.

"We didn't need help the first time, professor. Moony's got the talent to do the incantation, and the brains to have made up the majority of it." His tone was abbrasive and slightly superior, the product of being raised as though he were better than all around him, as much as he resisted his parentage. Sirius silently ran his wand along the gaps between the parchment sheets, binding them into one sheet, nearly four feet by four feet. "Go ahead, Moony," he said, gesturing grandly to the sloppy, enormous map that lay before them on the stone floor.

Remus read over the incantation twice more, mouthing the words as he went, before picking up his wand. Brushing sandy fringe away from his face, the werewolf took a slow, deep breath, unintentionally creating an even more dramatic atmosphere as the hall's other five occupants waited in suspense.

"_Sequi demographus,_" he murmured, waving his wand just above the map. "_Moton simul uni James Charlus Potter. Scipolis tempoverit. Cokinetica biogramus._" As the last two words were uttered the room let out a collective breath that none knew they'd been holding,and the ink lines on the map began to blur as if surrounded by a mist.

"_Again_," Sirius hissed urgently. "Three repititions, then the conclusion, remember?"

"_Sequi demographus. Moton simul uni James Charlus Potter. Scipolis tempoverit. Cokinetica biogramus._" The blurred lines began to grow clear once more, but seemed to be swimming along, as though the ink was flowing through motes on the page. "_Sequi demographus. Moton simul uni James Charlus Potter. Scipolis tempoverit. Cokinetica biogramus._" The illusion or action of flowing ink ceased, and the lines began to glow softly. Remus paused and took another deep, careful breath, speaking the concluding words in a reverential whisper.

"_Crea topoviva._"

For a split second, all were blinded by a burst of light that exploded from the specimen they had been so intensely observing.

"Brilliant," Lily breathed.

"Unbelievable," Flitwick muttered, gaping in wonder.

"Impossible," McGonagal whispered to herself.

"Improbable, Minerva," Dumbledore said quietly. "Doubtful, dubious, illogical. And yet..." The Headmaster gestured, at a loss for words, to the parchment at their feet.

"Extraordinary," Lily added, still marveling at the map.

"Fantastic," Sirius mocked in a false tone of amazement, causing Remus to burst out laughing.

"You two created this map, and this spell...when you were _thirteen_?" McGonagal asked in wonder.

"We started the map in first year, just to help us remember our way around the castle, but then Remus read somewhere about maps being used to track people and, nearly three years of work later..." Sirius trailed off, shrugging.

"And you managed to become Animagi at sixteen?" Professor Dumbledore inquired politely.

"That took us nearly two years. Me and James started work on it right after we finished the map, about half way through third year. It was a lovely surprise for Remus, on his first full moon after Winter Break, to have his best friends with him," Sirius explained, watching his Transfiguration teacher's face morph in disbelief and derision.

"Impossible. It took me five years," she challenged. Sirius raised his eyebrow.

"We won't tell if you don't," he stage whispered, adding a wink to the end of his statement.

"Don't get them arrested, really," Remus added seriously. "They do keep me in check. It...helps." Without hesitation, Dumbledore nodded, his blue eyes twinkling comfortingly down at the young werewolf.

"It's horribly dangerous to try to become an Animagus!" Lily interjected suddenly. "I can't believe you were stupid enough to attempt it!" Her face was turning red quickly and her deep green eyes were narrowed angrily.

"We succeeded, with minimal harm done," Sirius told her, one eyebrow still raised. "You're just upset we managed to keep it from you."

"And you said the map was the most complicated thing you'd done," the redhead argued heatedly, shoving long locks behind her right ear. "Becoming an Animagus is much more difficult than that Charm looked!"

"Lily, you're thinking in theory," Remus said kindly.

"Yes, you've never actually done anything that wasn't assigned," Sirius said with a chuckle. "Besides extra reading, I mean," he joked when he saw her eyes shooting daggers at him.

"Be nice, Padfoot," Remus chastised. The older boy sighed, then nodded resignedly.

"What I _meant_," he said slowly, "was that, yes, the spellwork for the transformation was difficult, but the groundwork was already set down. We just had to sneak into the Restricted Section a few times and then lock ourselves up all Christmas Break to complete the spells. And James kicks arse at Transfiguration, so he did most of that."

"What he means is that they were older, and skilled. Wandwork wasn't a problem, so becoming Animagi wasn't too hard in comparison to inventing a new incantation for the map." Lily frowned at this explanation. She was clearly feeling insignificant and unsuccessful.

"Yeah. You have no idea what kind of catastrophes we had with our first few maps, when we were studying all that Latin, trying to make those spells," Sirius said, smiling at the memories.

"I seem to remember a day when all of the castle's staircases were mysteriously unstable," Dumbledore laughed, and Sirius grinned widely.

"A few of them still just fall through when you step on them," Remus said, thinking of the Vanishing steps that he and his friends had unintentionally created in random places around the school.

"James!" Lily shreiked suddenly. Everyone's heads whipped around, searching the Entrance Hall for the person they'd nearly forgotten they'd lost, but he wasn't there. The girl was pointing, horrorstruck, at the map as the name "James Charlus Potter" twirled its way up what was labeled as the staircase leading to the top of the poorly drawn Astronomy Tower.

"Prongs," Sirius muttered, mostly to himself. "What are you doing, Prongsie?"

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><p><strong>AN2: Dun, dun, dun...(That was dramatic music, by the way) But anyways, I hope to upload more quickly. I am not simply fishing for compliments when I say that reviews are a nice *wink wink shove shove* to get me working again and updating more frequently. If you need to flame, I guess you can do it. I probably won't cry. Everyone needs to vent their rage, and your rage may well be directed at my interpretations of your favorite characters. Anyway, questions and comments may be directed, if you wish, by Private Messaging. I'll answer them, I swear, and I'll also try to reply to every Review.**

**Thank you for reading, my lovelies**


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